I am mid-adventure. Time for a pause. Time to give great appreciation to the mysterious force of synchronicity.

As I planned this trip, I followed my intuition to stay this past week Sunday to Friday in an Airbnb in Raleigh. It was near a Ruby Tuesdays. I’ve never eaten at that chain, but on night 1, I decided to go in for the salad bar. Yum. Nice waitress. Good lunch specials on menu. Next to a Starbucks ( my office on the road).

Day 2: I go in for lunch. Same waitress is there eating with friends and comes over. Very enthusiastic and friendly so I tell her of my adventure; give her my card. She thinks that’s pretty cool! Her name is Brittany.

Day 3: back for lunch; different waitress, very sweet also. When I leave, I drop my card with the cash payment before I walk out. Don’t say anything to her.

Day 4: eat elsewhere.

Day 5: it’s concert day. Gotta get to the arena to get that wristband. But decide to stop for a quick lunch at Ruby’s again. Think to myself, this is gonna make you get a higher wristband number and you aren’t gonna get in.

But I drop into intuition and get a hit–I need sustenance and I need to stop.

In I walk, get seated, it’s waitress number 2. She comes up with a smile, remembers my name and my order and says, “and you’re a photographer–I’m a make up artist.”

We talk. She is inspired, she says, by what I’m doing. Her name is Dorian. Like Dorian Gray, she says. You know who that is, right? I nod. If course, she says. No one around here knows who that is.

She tells me more: first generation American, her family is from Democratic Republic of Congo. Her father’s a professor and engineer. She has a college degree and studied theater as well as sciences (I hope I got that right-Dorian, let me know). She wants to do something more. She’s a single mom, though, of a 5 year old daughter. So she’s feeling a bit stuck at the moment.

But, oh, what a spirit shines out of this young woman. And she’s been inspired by my card. We talk about her going to LA, about a visit, a road trip, in our future together. I tell her, trust. Your daughter will grow. Things will change.

She goes off to put in my order and Brittany comes bouncing over. We chatter away, mostly she’s talking and I’m listening. She’s only 18. First job. Just graduated high school. She moved so much as a kid, she doesn’t want to to go anywhere. She wants to stay put, feel rooted. Fascinating contrast.

But she’s so happy to have met me. Somehow I’m giving something to her. I can tell.

It turned out that I did just miss the pit. But, I was right on the rail of the regular GA section, on the edge if the stage he runs around on and Bruce came by a lot. I touched him, he sang to us.

I know that my choosing that restaurant was important, and that stopping back in one last time was right. I don’t need to understand the way this Mystery works. I can just relax and trust it. I am committed to that. I will respond.

It was perfect. It always is.